Effect of Active Lessons on Physical Activity,Academic, and Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of classroom-based physical activity interventions that integrate academic content and assess the effectiveness of the interventions on physical activity, learning, facilitators of learning, and health outcomes. Method: Six electronic databases (ERIC, PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE) and reference lists were searched for English-language articles, published January 1990 through March 2015, reporting classroom-based interventions that deliberately taught academic content using physically active teaching methods for at least 1 week duration, with physical activity, health, learning, or facilitators-of-learning outcomes. Two authors reviewed full-text articles. Data were extracted onto an Excel spreadsheet, and authors were contacted to confirm accuracy of the information presented. Results: Fifteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Six studies reporting on physical activity levels were found to have medium-to-large effect sizes. All 4 studies reporting learning outcomes showed positive effects of intervention lessons. Teachers and students were pleased with the programs, and enhanced on-task behavior was identified (n = 3). Positive effects were also reported on students’ body mass index levels (n = 3). Conclusions: Physically active academic lessons increase physical activity levels and may benefit learning and health outcomes. Both students and teachers positively received and enjoyed these teaching methods. These findings emphasize the need for such interventions to contribute toward public health policy.     

Effect of the look-up line on the gaze and head orientation of elite ice hockey players

Abstract

A “look-up line” (LUL) has been proposed for ice hockey, which is an orange 1?m (40′) warning line (WL) painted on the ice at the base of the boards. The LUL purports to provide an early warning to players to keep their head up prior to and as they are being checked. We determined if players looked up more on a rink with the LUL compared to a traditional Control rink. Elite offensive (O) and defensive (D) players competed 1 vs. 1, while wearing an eye tracker that recorded their quiet eye (QE) and fixation and tracking (F-T) and an electrogoniometer that measured head angle. External cameras recorded skate duration during four skate phases: P1 preparation, P2 decision-making, P3 cut to boards, P4 contact. The QE was the final fixation prior to contact between O and D as they skated towards and across the WL during P3 and P4. Skate phase durations (%) did not differ by rink or rink by position. More QE and F-T occurred on the WL on the LUL rink than on the Control. The expected increase in head angle on the LUL rink did not occur during P3 or P4. Post-hoc results also showed O and D skated further from the boards on the LUL rink, suggesting the players preferred to control the puck on white ice, rather than the orange colour of the LUL rink. More research is needed to determine if these results apply to the competitive setting.     

Student teachers in school practice: an analysis of learning opportunities

Abstract

Over the past decade, educational policy in Britain, as in other industrial nations, has been increasingly driven by the concern that higher education should serve the needs of the economy more effectively. The report Highly Qualified People: supply and demand reflects this concern and attempts to establish from employers Britain's likely requirement, in the 1990s, for such expensively educated labour. Though the report concluded that Britain needed more graduates over the next few years, closer scrutiny of its data suggests a very different conclusion ‐ not that Britain needs more graduates to prosper, but rather that Britain needs first to prosper before it is likely to want the graduates it already produces.

     

TRAINING OLDER AND YOUNGER ADULTS TO USE SOFTWARE

Forty‐six subjects (22 young, 24 old) received three training sessions with software (Borland's “Sidekick"). Each session lasted a maximum of S h. The fourth session was a test. Subjects were randomly assigned to two learning environments, partnered or individual, and half were given a computer “jargon” sheet before training. All instructions were written, learning was self‐paced, and tasks were formulated according to discovery‐method guidelines. Attitudes toward computers were measured before Session 1 and on completion of Session 3. The results showed that older adults took twice as long as younger ones but achieved nearly equal performance levels, exceeding young adults in one condition but falling slightly below them in others. Older adults requested help two to three times as frequently. Session 3 attitude scores were positively correlated with the mark achieved on the final test, and changes in attitudes were related to training conditions.     

The role and the training of teacher-counsellors

The example of teachers not seeking counselling was used. Some reasons for this situation were given as well as one possible way to change it by providing early information and training during the students' regular studies. My hope is that if teachers have the necessary information, abilities and positive experiences, when they have problems, it should be easier for them to use counsellors than it is for other today.Teachers were used as an example of how one group could be encounraged to make use of counsellors. However, similar strategies could be used with other groups whose jobs involve high personal stress (for example social workers, medical doctors etc.). The example of teachers was also used to show how change can be introduced within a system. Here it might be useful to develop the ability to work with a counsellor during the regular education, so that it becomes part of their understanding of their professional role.     

Application of Quality Function Deployment for the Improvement of Quality in an Engineering Department

In adopting a customer‐oriented approach to higher education, quality function deployment (QFD) is one of the total quality management techniques which can be applied for process and design improvement. Following a review of some practices in this sector, this paper outlines a QFD model in which the opinions of three groups of customers are utilized for quality planning. A developed framework for the dimensions of quality in engineering education was used in conjunction with the quality processes in a departmental quality management framework proposed by the Engineering Professors’ Council. The results from the QFD led to a strategy for prioritizing the different quality processes within a school/department.     

Pragmatic language in deaf and hard of hearing students: correlation with success in general education

Deaf and hard of hearing children have shown delays and difficulties in pragmatic behaviors due to insufficient exposure to common daily discourse and underlying impoverishment in all components of language development. In a study in a school district in a southeastern U.S. state, the researchers investigated the relationship between sociolinguistic pragmatic competence in 81 deaf and hard of hearing students and these students' degree of hearing loss, communication mode, and degree of success in general education. Two measures, one devised by the state's department of education and one developed within the local school system, were used: the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (Georgia Department of Education, 2000) and the Socio-Pragmatic Skills Checklist for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students (Cobb County School District, 1997). The researchers found that whether the students used spoken language or signed language, socio-pragmatic language had a high, positive correlation with academic outcomes.